Pursuing Knowledge That Benefits

Pursuing Knowledge That Benefits

Imam Zaid Shakir

Opening

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Peace be upon you.

It is a great honor to be here in the presence of many scholars, dignitaries, and young bright faces in the world of scholarship, and to be given the task of talking about the pursuit of useful and beneficial knowledge rather than just talking about the purpose of life.

The Three Realms of Knowledge

So, I'd like to start by just referencing a phrase that's in the Dua of Istikharah where we say:

"O Allah, if You know that this matter is good for me in my religion, in my worldly living, and in the end of my affair."

So, these are the three realms where knowledge is relevant. We have to have knowledge of our Deen. When Allah tells us:

"I have only created the jinn and humans that they worship Me."

We worship Allah on the basis of knowledge. We don't make it up on the fly. We learn what's lawful, what's required, what's mandatory, what's sunnah, what's optional in a particular action. Everything we do, we learn if that action itself is incumbent, that we have to do it, or we can't do it, or we shouldn't do it. Or if it's highly encouraged, or if it's permissible—we can leave it, we can do it, it's the same in terms of reward or punishment. If it's discouraged, if it's forbidden—all of our actions we should try to fit into that scale so that we approach life with something you hear a lot of non-Muslims talking about nowadays: intentionality.

The Foundation of Intentionality

Muslims should be the most intentional people on earth because we're told—and for that reason, you find the first hadith in Imam Nawawi's Forty Hadith, for example, the first hadith in Sahih Bukhari, the first hadith in many of our books:

(Sahih Bukhari 1)

"Actions are based on the intentions accompanying them."

So we're a people of intentionality. We don't have to go to a new age seminar to find out about what our Prophet has told us. Actions are based on their intentions.

Continual Improvement in Knowledge

So we should look at all of our actions and see where they fit on that scale. Starting with our Ibadah, we worship Allah on the basis of knowledge. We should constantly be trying to improve ourselves and improve our knowledge of Zakat.

As the financial system gets more intricate and more involved, we have to increase our knowledge. We can't find in any of our ancient books what is the Zakat on money you earned from managing a hedge fund. We know the basic issues related to interest or Riba, but there are a lot of intricacies of the modern financial system that requires us to update our knowledge.

We should improve our prayer. Why? Because as the prayer-Imam Ghazali reminds us of the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him): Some people will pray and they'll get 10% of the reward because they've only intended 10%. Some will get half, etc.

The Challenge of Distraction

We're more and more distracted. We're the most distracted generation in human history. And those of you who are young and Imam Siraj is still young-but if you're younger than Imam Siraj, Imam Siraj didn't grow up, neither did I, I'm going to be honest.

I didn't grow up on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, the rest of it. Not even cell phones. We used to drive into the country for some peace and quiet. Let me get in the car and take a drive out into the country. You can't do that anymore. Everyone's on their cell phone, driving out into the country.

We're the most distracted generation in human history. How are we going to focus in our prayer if we're bringing that distraction that surrounds our lives into the prayer? And so we have to constantly upgrade our prayer to keep up with the distractions that society is hurling and shooting upon us.

Understanding Fundamentals of Aqidah

We have to understand basics of Aqidah. When I grew up, I didn't have to worry about what a human being was. Because at a basic level, a human being was a male or a female. That was it. There was no third option. Now there's a third option, and a fourth option, and a fifth option. And so if we don't understand from an Islamic perspective what the human being is, we're going to be messed up.

You're going to have Muslim transgender Muslims and you're going to have non-gender Muslims and you're going to have Muslims questioning whether they're cisgender Muslims or this gender Muslim or that gender Muslim. I'm not trying to if you're struggling with your sexual identity, that's a reality. If it's difficult for you, I sympathize and empathize.

But part of the reason for many people's struggle is the confusion and the lack of clarity that Allah gave us. That's one of the reasons. And people are afraid to talk about it. They're afraid to talk about it because they'll be outed as homophobic and transphobic and there'll be a social media campaign. But we have to understand from an Islamic perspective, we're Muslims.

Our Identity as Muslims

We're not just some creature that dropped out of the sky. We're human beings. We're descendants of our father Adam. We're the recipients of revelation. And we have to understand as fundamental knowledge: what does our religion, what does revelation say a human being is? We have to be crystal clear about these things. And the clarity will only come from the religion because the nature of Islam is Tawhid.

It's simplifying and unifying things. And the opposite of Tawhid is Takthir—Tawhid, Takthir, from Kathra, from multiplicity. The nature of the world is multiplicity. As time goes on, things disintegrate, and as things disintegrate, they become dissipated and they become more complicated. And so we have to simplify things.

And that simplicity comes from the knowledge of the religion. And again, if you look at—we mentioned the whole gender situation—every month there's a new letter added to an LGBT, right? LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQI, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIAP—Takthir!

It becomes more and more complicated. And in that confusion, a lot of Muslims are losing their way.

The Purpose of Life

We have to understand what the purpose of life is at a fundamental level. People are talking about it here, but at a fundamental level, we're created to worship Allah. And everything revolves around that central reality.

Allah tells us: "I've only created the jinn and humans that they worship Me."

That's the foundation of our being. And that worship has to be focused on the reality of Allah. And that worship has to be grounded in the relationship between us and Allah.

Because again, society wants us to focus on society.

Understanding Social Justice

I'll give you a more extended example to take a little bit more of my time before concluding. Now, we're inundated with the idea of social justice. Social justice, social justice. We have to have knowledge. What is this? So we go back to Ma'ash—my worldly living.

So this is a specific realm of religion that has religious implications. Social justice, social justice, social justice. A lot of people in this room will say, "I'm a social justice warrior."

Well, what happened to justice? So again, if we talk about Takthir, what happened to just plain justice? There's a reason social justice has been prioritized in our day and time. It's associated with the rise of atheism. And it's associated with the rise of a rebellion against Allah.

The Three Realms of Justice

As Muslims, to go back to fundamental knowledge, there are three basic realms of justice, not just one—the social. They're referred to in the hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal and Abu Dharr. The hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal is:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1987)

"Fear Allah wherever you are."

This is the first realm of justice—the relationship between us and Allah. And the most unjust person is the person who's unjust in that relationship. And so for that reason, what does Allah say? We talk about justice, social justice, and oppression. What's the greatest oppression?

"Indeed, Shirk is a great oppression," because that's injustice, that's us being unjust in our relationship with Allah.

And then, the hadith continues:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1987)

"Follow up a bad deed with a good deed—it will wipe it out."

This is the relationship with ourselves. So after the relationship with Allah and the justice in that realm, there's the relationship with our soul. Allah says:

"And amongst them are those who oppress their very soul."

Why? They're burning it down with a weight of sin so that they're pushing it into Hell. What could be more unjust? How could you be more unjust to yourself than to engage in actions and propagate ideas that push your soul into Hell? That's grave injustice.

And in the third realm, the hadith concludes:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1987)

"Behave toward people with good character." That's the social realm.

The Problem with Modern Social Justice

So why not just the social realm? Because if you're an atheist, you have to eliminate the relationship between yourself and Allah. And if you're an atheist, there's no consequence beyond this world. There's no Heaven or Hell. So you have to deny the relationship with your very soul and the fate of your soul.

And what results is social justice that has no parameters that are dictated by Islamic beliefs and Islamic law to determine its parameters. And so things that will doom us as recipients of the divine knowledge to Hellfire become things we champion as a social justice warrior. Things that will relegate our souls to Hell become things that we champion as a social justice warrior.

We have to have fundamental knowledge of the religion so we can live in this world as believers and not have the wool pulled over our eyes and live in this world as non-Muslims. And this determines 'Aqibati Amri-the end of my affair. My actions are committed to Allah.

Living for the Hereafter

And then at the end of my life—we don't live for this world. We do our best. We don't commit suicide because this thing or the other that we strove so hard for in the world didn't happen. Because we're not recognized in the world. We're not affirmed in the world. As long as you're affirmed with Allah, you don't need the world.

That's because of the greatest knowledge we can possess: You're who you are with Allah. You don't need the affirmations your parents are telling you to say when you get up in the morning. You don't need the affirmations your friends are telling you. "Why are you so obsessed with being feminine? If you think you're a boy, then act like a boy. Why are you so rigid?" You don't need those affirmations.

You don't need the affirmations of people who question why you're doing all this work to put yourself in a position to be a responsible husband. "Why are you getting married at 21? Why don't you live a little? Sow your wild oats. Hang out."

Now if you're 21, 22 years old and you're not thinking seriously about marriage, then you've been a victim of a society that's on the verge of committing sexual suicide.

Following the Sunnah

That's not just religion. Allah is teaching us through the Prophets things that go against the practice of the broader society.

السواك - Good oral hygiene. Using a toothpick. Brushing your teeth and flossing. As-Siwak.

التَّعَطَّرُ - Using perfume. Good cleanliness.

وَالْحَيَاءُ - And modesty, shyness. Don't be bold. Be shy. Your brother should be shy. Be shy with extra measures.

And even more amazingly, I'm sure some of you know that the DSM—the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders—someone here may be a psychiatrist, and the doctors in general know it. About five or six years ago, shyness was placed in the manual as a psychiatric disorder. That's the world! What does the world say about shyness? There's no such thing as being shy. I can't be shy. I have to be bold. "That's right, that's what that means. This is your time to shine. Express yourself!"

They have a combination—an inner city combination of bold and audacious. "I have to be bodacious! I can't be shy. I'm reading 'How to Win Friends and Influence People.' Ask for what you want. The Prophet asked. Be shy." That's what the Hadith says.

Forget the DSM. What does the Prophet say about shyness? He said:

(Sahih Bukhari 24, Sahih Muslim 35)

"Shyness is from iman."

This was the Sunnah, the way the Prophet acted, peace be upon him. And in that same hadith:

(Sahih Muslim 35)

"Faith is seventy-some-odd branches. The highest, the most virtuous of them, is to say 'La ilaha illa Allah' (there is no god but Allah). The lowest of them is to remove the harmful thing from the path, and shyness is a branch of faith."

The Battle for Our Consciousness

This is the disconnect. Forget the world. This world is trying to take away our very consciousness. Some of you are trying to be on your phone right now, even as I speak. I don't know who you are. Maybe you're bored. But the reason you're doing this is because you're addicted to your phone.

There was a discussion between an old school social media person—that's the person who grew up with just a telephone hanging on the wall—and the new school social media person—that's the person who grew up with a cell phone since they were in elementary school. And the old school person asked, "What's the difference between this box hanging on the wall and this computer in your hand?"

He said, "That box hanging on the wall didn't have a thousand software engineers trying to figure out a way how to make it addictive."

That's the difference. There are thousands of software engineers, psychiatrists working for Google and Facebook and Amazon trying to figure out a way how to make your cell phone more and more addictive. Because the more time you spend on that screen, someone's making money. The more time you spend talking with Alexa, or whatever her name is, someone's making money.

The Reality of Social Media

Because they're harvesting your data, and then that data's being sold. Facebook doesn't charge you anything. How come they have a billion-dollar campus in California and across the street are building a multi-billion-dollar campus and they don't charge you anything? They're profiling you. They're refining the algorithms that control your likes and dislikes, and then they're selling that to people all over the world.

They're selling it to intelligence agencies, they're selling it to marketing agencies, they're selling it for billions of dollars. And that's why their stock is worth billions, they're building campuses worth billions. And it's all free. You give it to them for free—every second you're engaged on this device.

And we have to acknowledge that the deeper consequences of that in terms of our worldly existence. We're being shaped at the deepest level of Ma'ash—worldly living. And ultimately they want to take your will away from you. They want to play God. They want to challenge the Lordship of Allah.

The Battle for Free Will

Allah says:

"You will desire nothing unless it's consistent with Allah's desire."

They're saying, "No, we're going to make it consistent with what we desire. What are we going to do? We're going to develop algorithms around your likes, your dislikes, your propensities, your inclinations, until we

suggest to you everything that we desire. And you will follow our suggestions 100%." That's the goal.

"And then we will be the master of you, not Allah."

And if you don't understand that, don't understand what's happening in this world, you will follow along like a lemming. What's a lemming? You know what a lemming is? L-E-M-M-I-N-G. I know some of you might know. What's a lemming? My brother, you don't know? How'd you raise your hand? Somebody's got to know what a lemming is. A lemming. L-E-M-M-I-N-G. What's a lemming? Nobody knows. You've been had. Because you've been dumbed down.

A lemming is a rodent. It looks like a little chipmunk—just a little rodent. And it lives in the Scandinavian countries. Every 10, 12, 15 years, their population explodes. Okay? And then they follow each other over a cliff to their death. They march to the sea and drown. They just follow each other to their destruction.

The Attack on Traditional Values

These people want us to follow each other to our destruction. They want to destroy us. That's what they want. They don't want a man to be a man. If you're a real man and you're exemplifying masculinity, "That's toxic! You're toxic." If you're assertive and bold and courageous and ferocious—all of the qualities you need to protect a pregnant woman who can'